- A suspect fatally shot by police on the 101
Freeway Wednesday was unarmed, but had threatened
police, the LAPD announced Thursday.
The LAPD said the incident started in the area of
Plummer Street and Shirley Avenue near the
Northridge Fashion Center just before 10 p.m.
Wednesday. Officers attempted to stop a man who
was driving erratically in a black Ford Crown
Victoria. He took off and led them on a seven-
minute pursuit.
When officers backed off, the suspect began
driving more erratically, running red lights and
almost striking pedestrians, according to
authorities.
The pursuit came to an end on the 101 Freeway near
Canoga Avenue when the driver appeared to make a
U-turn into oncoming traffic. Officers slammed
into the driver's side of the suspect vehicle. The
driver jumped out the passenger side and pointed
his hands at officers several times as he ran
across lanes of the freeway.
According to police, the suspect exited his
vehicle and took what appeared to be an aggressive
"shooting stance" several times, extending his
arms out, and pointing an unknown object at the
officers. This caused the officer at the scene to
believe he was armed with a handgun.
The LAPD said more than three officers opened
fire, killing 19-year-old Abdul Arian. Police
recovered a cellphone from the scene.
Thursday afternoon the LAPD released a statement
stating that Arian was unarmed. He did tell a
police dispatcher during a 911 phone call that he
had a gun, and threatened officers.
"If they pull their guns, I'm gonna have to pull
my gun out on them," Arian allegedly said,
according to an LAPD transcript.
According to the LAPD transcript, Arian also told
the 911 dispatcher: "I have a gun," and "I've been
arrested before for possession of destructive
devices, I'm not afraid of the cops."
"Clearly what he was doing during that altercation
was assuming a shooting stance, holding some type
of object in his hand and pointing it at our
officers," said LAPD Commander Andrew Smith
"He had the phone with him. He was probably trying
to tell LAPD, 'You know I'm on the phone with 911,
don't shoot,'" said Hamed Arian, the suspect's
uncle.
Asked if the officers on the ground were aware
Arian was talking to a 911 dispatcher, Smith said:
"We're looking into that now to see how much of
that information was relayed by the dispatcher to
the officers in the field."
Family members are in shock over the death. They
say the graduate of Taft High School has never
been in trouble before, and at one point wanted to
be a police officer. But he developed a fear of
law enforcement, which they believe played a role
in his reluctance to pull over when police started
chasing him.
"He came out from the gym, and he ran a red light.
The police chased him, and while they were chasing
him, he was calling 911, saying that, you know,
'The police are chasing me.' He was always afraid
of cops," said Hamed Arian.
Family members say Abdul Arian did not own a gun,
and they are convinced he was not armed when
police opened fire.
"He was running from the cop when they shot him,
and they didn't have to shoot him so many times.
They could have used rubber bullets, they could
have used Taser," Hamed Arian said.
Police shut down the freeway in both directions at
White Oak Avenue for 10 hours while they
investigated the scene. The California Highway
Patrol tried to hold traffic back, but drivers
ended up stuck on the freeway for hours within the
crime scene, including a driver named Mike
Moratti.
All lanes of the 101 Freeway in Woodland Hills
reopened at 8 a.m. Thursday after being shut down
for hours. Dozens of evidence markers were strewn
across the freeway, many placed next to shell
casings.
Northbound lanes reopened around 2:15 a.m., but
southbound lanes between Topanga Canyon Boulevard
and De Soto Avenue did not reopen until 8 a.m.,
causing major delays for morning commuters - 12
April 2012.